Smart Intersections for Dumb Drivers

Ford demonstrates how a stoplight can yell at a driver to slow down.

Some enthusiasts already gripe about how technology and safety concerns are increasingly doing the driving for us, with sensors to detect hazards and slow us down or straighten out our tails when we’re trying to explore a vehicle’s capabilities.

But we enthusiasts are the minority, and automakers continue their efforts to improve safety for the majority by equipping new vehicles to assume more of the guesswork and take action faster than the human eye can detect a problem, the brain can process it, and the hands on the wheel can react or the foot can stomp on the appropriate pedal.

At Ford, one new push to fall under the umbrella of “active safety” is the “smart intersection” that warns a driver about to blow through a red light or a stop sign.

The intersection has a processor that serves as a traffic controller—the brains of the system. It monitors the traffic signal, GPS data from the vehicle, and reads digital maps detailed enough to pinpoint individual lanes and what they allow a vehicle to do. The processor sends a message to the GPS chip in the car that is equipped with short-range wireless radio or a wi-fi card, and if there is a potential hazard or the car does not appear to be coming to stop at a red, the car warns the driver to brake, explains Joe Stinnett, Ford’s lead technical engineer in this research.

Ford is experimenting with ways of alerting the driver. A voice warns “stop sign” and there is a bank of LED lights at the base of the windshield that reflects onto the glass.

Chat Up the Sports Car Two Lanes Over

So far only the intersection talks to the car, but the goal is for vehicles to talk to each other and to the intersection, says Priya Prasad, Ford safety technical fellow.

Most of what is envisioned is relatively low cost: wi-fi electronics as a vigilant passenger, getting messages from the software at the intersection to try and prevent a traffic violation, since research show such violations cause half of traffic accidents. The ability to use wi-fi (which is a short hop from Bluetooth technology available now) avoids the cost of burying sensors in the roadways for smart highways. So far, no one has wi-fi in their vehicles, but it is just a matter of time, executives say.

The concept is being tested at a handful of smart intersections including the corner of Military and Village Roads in Dearborn, Michigan, near Ford’s Research and Innovation Center. It is one of the first privately funded intersections with vehicle-to-infrastructure technology. The traffic light also provides information about six nearby stop signs. A 2009 Ford Flex test vehicle is equipped to receive the warnings.

Work on smart intersections has been underway since 2004 as part of a collaboration between Ford, GM, Honda, Daimler, Toyota, the federal government, and local and county road commissions. The project is known as the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership.

Standards Almost Complete

The government and automakers are working on standards now, which should be complete next year, opening the door for each car company to market its own competitive version. The expectation is vehicle-to-vehicle communication could start about 2013. As only a few Ford products would have the technology initially, the automaker says it would also market an aftermarket warning system.

On the intersection end, Oakland County, outside Detroit, is being proactive, says Gary Piotrowicz, director of traffic safety for the road commission. The county is making sure new intersections are software-based to be able to load smart technology and programs as they become available, as opposed to continuing to use mechanical intersections.

There is a fuel-efficiency angle to this story, as well. Ford says research shows 40 percent of all traffic accidents and 20 percent of crash-related fatalities occur at intersections, and it will only get worse as cities around the world get bigger and drivers get older. Half of today’s congestion is the result of accidents, and the resultant idling wastes three billion gallons of gas annually in the U.S., says Prasad.

“If smart intersections reduce congestion, there will be less fuel consumption,” adds Gerhard Schmidt, Ford’s chief technical officer, who assures us smart intersections will happen—the only question is how fast the technology is rolled out.

Schmidt says for years crashworthiness was considered passive safety, but the advancement of computers and technology make vehicles increasingly capable of actively preventing accidents.

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